Manmohan slams demonetisation , asks Modi to find more dignified ways for votes

In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his predecessor Manmohan Singh on Saturday said Modi failed to understand the “pains” of his note ban and Goods and Services Tax (GST) decisions were going to unleash on the people of his own home state.

Calling demonetisation an “uninformed, half-baked crusade” and GST a “badly designed and hastily implemented” measure, Singh also lamented the “low-level rhetoric” used by the ruling party.

“I wish the prime minister would find more dignified ways of impressing upon the crowds and seeking their votes…,” he said.

“Just as you were recovering from one blow (of demonetisation), came the GST. Nobody consulted you or tried to understand how your dhandha (business) works,” he told a gathering of members of the local business community in Surat.

“The prime minister is from Gujarat, and he claims to understand Gujarat and the poor more than anyone else. How is it that he never understood the pains his decisions will unleash on you?” Singh asked.

“Your business works on trust and relationships. Without trust in each other, Surat will collapse. You extended this trust to the prime minister and his promise of ‘acchhe din’ (good days). The hope symbolised in those dreams now lies shattered,” he said.

In Surat alone, 89,000 powerlooms were sold as scrap and it led to a loss of 31,000 jobs, Singh said. “There are countless such examples from industrial clusters and big mandis (markets) from across the country.”

China benefited from this situation, he claimed.

“In FY 2016-17, India’s imports from China stood at Rs 1.96 lakh crore. During the same period in FY 2017-18, the imports from China increased to Rs 2.41 lakh crore. This unprecedented increase in imports by more than Rs 45,000 crore, a 23 per cent increase in a year, can be attributed largely to demonetisation and GST.

“These twin blows damaged India’s MSME sector and our businesses had to turn to Chinese imports at the cost of India jobs,” the senior Congress leader said.

On demonetisation, Singh said, “This is an uninformed, half-baked crusade on black money where he (Modi) painted everyone as a thief, while real culprits have gotten away.”

The Goods and Services Tax was “badly designed and hastily implemented”, the economist-turned-politician said.

Demonetisation and GST have also “sown a deep-rooted fear of tax terrorism among the business community”, he said.